KOCHI/THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Repercussions of the murder of SFI worker Dheeraj Rajendran in Idukki were felt in different parts of the state on Tuesday too as various organisations took out protest marches, leading to minor law and order issues in some places. The SFI had called a statewide students’ strike on Tuesday and the strike paralysed most of the campuses. As police had beefed up security in all sensitive areas foreseeing tension.
The governing council of Ernakulam Maharaja’s College decided to close the institution for 10 days as the situation remained tense after SFI workers beat up around 10 KSU workers on Monday. According to Principal Mercy Joseph, the college will reopen on January 21. On Tuesday, KSU activists took out a march towards the Maharaja’s College Hostel where, they alleged, the culprits behind the attack on the college unit office-bearers were hiding.
In Thiruvananthapuram, SFI and CPM organised separate marches to the residence of Congress state president K Sudhakaran at Pettah. Though Sudhakaran was out of station, the police provided security and prevented marches from reaching the house.
Kollam MP N K Premachandran, whose vehicle was stopped by SFI workers at Chavara on Monday, wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, complaining about the lack of security for him in his own constituency.
The Congress block committee office at Tiruvalla was attacked by SFI workers who took out a protest march. The police registered a case against 40 SFI workers in connection with the incident. A bid by SFI activists to disrupt classes at Vadakara MUM Higher Secondary School in Kozhikode led to a tense situation as local residents gathered to take on the protesting students. Timely intervention by the police helped defuse the tension.
‘CPM responsible for murder politics in Kerala’
T’Puram: Senior Congress leaders, including the party’s state chief K Sudhakaran, on Wednesday condemned the murder of SFI worker Dheeraj Rajendran in Idukki. Sudhakaran, however, warned the CPM to first stop indulging in violence. “The Congress party cannot support murderous politics, but the Communist party has no moral right to indict other parties over murderous politics as its leaders have turned the campuses in the state into a battlefield of student politics,” he said. Opposition leader V D Satheesan told reporters the Congress and UDF will never justify the murderous politics in the state.